Red markers got a workout Friday in Wixom as 50 employees and family signed their names to the final steel beam to be placed in the new General RV headquarters now under construction in Wixom.

The 98,000-square-foot building, which can be seen from I-96, is located on 34 acres on the western edge of the old Ford Wixom assembly plant. Demolition of that plant ended last fall.

The new building is nearly three times the size of the current office at 48500 12 Mile Road at I-96 in Wixom.

Afterwards construction workers hoisted the 30-foot beam above the crowd and attached it to the building frame.

“We’ve come a long way since 1962,” said Loren Baidas, 39-year-old president and grandson of original owner, Abe Baidas. “We were out of space at the old facility.”

The new headquarters –– which will hold service bays for maintaining RVs, showroom, sales areas and corporate offices –– will open in early October this year.

Handling the construction is contractor, Schonsheck Inc. of Wixom.

Loren Baidas said his RV company was “sticking close to home” in hiring Schonsheck.

General RV, the largest family-owned RV dealer in the U.S. with 11 locations, including two in Florida, has already hired an additional 15 people in advance of the relocation.“We’ll add 30 or more once the facility opens,” said Baidas.

The RV business which began on Eight Mile in Detroit in 1962 employs 400 people in Michigan and another 300 in other states.

The 4.7-million-square-foot Ford plant location will also be home to a new Menards hardware/home store.